Precision Coffee Extraction
Master the physics and chemistry behind elite extractions. Learn to manipulate flow profiles, particle distribution, and custom mineral water to push flavor clarity beyond standard brewing limits.
Like Duolingo, but for Precision Coffee Extraction. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 12 levels across 2 sections, about 24 minutes end to end, roughly 5 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Manipulating Fluid Dynamics and The Chemistry of Solution.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Precision Coffee Extraction
- Coffee puck erosion depletes soluble mass, causing hydraulic resistance to drop significantly mid-to-late pull
- Maintaining a flat 9-bar pressure profile as resistance drops accelerates flow and promotes micro-channeling
- Declining pressure from peak (e.g., 9 bar down to 5-6 bar) matches degrading puck resistance to stabilize volumetric flow
- Turbo shots run at coarse espresso grinds and low pressures (~6 bar) to avoid compacting fines into flow-blocking beds
- Shorter contact times (12–16 seconds) still yield high, uniform extraction (>22% EY) because water permeates the entire bed evenly
- Standard high-pressure (9 bar) fine-grind extractions paradoxically lower extraction yield via localized choking and micro-channeling
- Dense light roasts wet and swell slowly, making dry pockets prone to severe localized channeling under sudden 9-bar loads
- Soaking the puck at 1–3 bar allows capillary action to uniformly saturate and expand the bed before full extraction pressure hits
- Uniform saturation eliminates dry pockets and equalizes flow resistance across the entire basket diameter
- Polar, volatile organic acids and sweet aromatics dissolve almost instantly during the initial wetting phase
- Astringent, bitter degradation products like phenylindanes dissolve slowly and dominate the diluted tail of the extraction
- Water fills the open headspace cavity between shower screen and puck screen before any resistance builds
- The saturated coffee bed swells vertically into the remaining free void until contacting the screen boundary
- Hydraulic pressure builds and overcomes puck resistance only after full headspace saturation and bed expansion complete
- Unimodal distributions eliminate the second fines peak, reducing astringency at high extraction yields but offering almost no buffer against shot channeling
- Bimodal conical profiles generate deliberate micro-fines that restrict puck flow and boost perceived body, creating a much broader sweet spot when dialing in
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Precision Coffee Extraction the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
If you keep pushing a flat 9 bar of pressure while puck resistance collapses late in a shot, what happens?
Get it right to open this lesson and 11 more in the app.
Where Precision Coffee Extraction takes you
- 1
Manipulating Fluid Dynamics
- Flow and Pressure Profiling
- Particle Distribution and Fines Migration
- 2
The Chemistry of Solution
- Ion-Specific Water Formulation
- Thermal Gradients and Solubility Limits
2 sections · 4 units · 12 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
Tomo is in ChatGPT
Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.
Add Tomo to ChatGPT- What to ask
- “Make me a Tomo course on black holes.” “Turn this chat into a Tomo course.”
- What you get
- Quick questions with instant feedback, hearts and stars, ready to play in about a minute.
- Where it goes
- No sign-up to start. Connect your Tomo account and your streak carries on in the app.
You pick the voice
Precision Coffee Extraction is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
More Food & Drink on Tomo
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Precision Coffee Extraction and Chemistry
Explore the physical and chemical dynamics of specialty coffee brewing. Calibrate extractions using refractometry, manipulate mineral buffers in water, and decode fermentation and roast kinetics.
Start Precision Coffee Extraction today.
Download Tomo, search Precision Coffee Extraction, and play your first lesson in under a minute.